Agreement helps tourism bookings recover

Holiday cancellations have been stemmed and last-minute bookings have started to recover from most foreign markets for the rest of the tourism season after the government’s agreement with its creditors on Monday, the head of the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), Andreas Andreadis, said on Tuesday.

However, German tourists appear reserved, probably due to the tension that was clear to be seen between the Greek and the German sides in the negotiations. The most common question German tourism professionals are asking their Greek peers is how welcome they would be here.

SETE is planning to launch a campaign in association with Marketing Greece aimed at rekindling German interest in this country. This will follow discussions with the Hellenic National Tourism Organization to avoid any overlap.

Andreadis estimates that bookings from other markets are likely to show a further improvement in the next few days, after the French and the Italian markets already appear to have recovered. The growth trend from the US is continuing as it was not been particularly affected by the Greek crisis, while Russian bookings have shown no more than the previously forecast decline